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The Writings of Bret Harte: Maruja and other tales
The Writings of Bret Harte Maruja and other tales Author:Bret Harte Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: A MILLIOKAIKE OF KOUGH-AND-KEADY PEOLOGUE There was no mistake this time : he had struck gold at last! It had lain there before him a moment ago — a missha... more »pen piece of brown-stained quartz, interspersed with dull yellow metal; yielding enough to have allowed the points of his pick to penetrate its honeycombed recesses, yet heavy enough to drop from the point of his pick as he endeavored to lift it from the red earth. He was seeing all this plainly, although he found himself, he knew not why, at some distance from the scene of his discovery, his heart foolishly beating, his breath impo- tently hurried. Yet he was walking slowly and vaguely; conscious of stopping and staring at the landscape, which no longer looked familiar to him. He was hoping for some instinct or force of habit to recall him to himself; yet when he saw a neighbor at work in an adjacent claim, he hesitated, and then turned his back upon him. Yet only a moment before he had thought of running to him, saying, " By Jingo ! I 've struck it," or " D—n it, old man, I 've got it; " but that moment had passed, and now it seemed to him that he could scarce raise his voice, or, if he did, the ejaculation would appear forced and artificial. Neither could he go over to him coolly and tell his good fortune ; ind, partly from this strange shyness, and partly with a hope that another survey of the treasure might restore him to natural expression, he walked back to his tunnel. Yes ; it was there ! No mere " pocket'' or " deposit," but a part of the actual vein he had been so long seeking. It was there, sure enough, lying beside the pick and the debris of the " face " of the vein that he had exposed sufficiently, after the first shock of discovery, to assure himself of the fact and the permanence of his fortune. It was...« less